Free Republic

Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson, last Friday (January 24, 2014) said that the approximately eleven and one half million illegal immigrants in the US have "earned the right to be citizens." He actually said that! Johnson also said: It is also, frankly, in my judgment, a matter of who we are as Americans, to offer the opportunity to those who want to be citizens, who've earned the right to be citizens, who are present in this country - many of whom came here as children - to have the opportunity that we all have to try to become American...

Less than twelve hours into the Republican retreat and the leaks and attacks came fast and furious. John Boehner, Eric Cantor, Kevin McCarthy, and Paul Ryan intend to push immigration through the United States House of Representatives. The bulk of the House Republicans thus far seem opposed, but Boehner and his lieutenants intend to find a path forward. They will start bid and grandiose and whittle their way down into something, anything, to show they intend to move the ball forward. Conservatives inside and outside the retreat began preemptively crying foul. The bill is going to suck. We all know...

Many advocates for immigrants, responding positively to new Republican overtures on immigration reform, are signaling they may back off on their longtime insistence that legislation must include a “special path” to citizenship for the country’s estimated 11 million illegal immigrants. Instead, a variety of advocate groups said they were delighted that House GOP leaders are seeking ways to compromise on the topic, including proposals that could legalize many undocumented immigrants but not necessarily allow them all to become U.S. citizens.

Seeking Hispanic votes they'll never get, Republicans might well ruin what could be one of their greatest electoral triumphs ever. Cheap labor now isn't worth a permanent socialist electorate tomorrow. 'Those are my principles," Groucho Marx once said, "and if you don't like them? Well, I have others." Business should stand for the rule of law. It should also stand for sustaining economic liberty in America's long-term future. Both principles argue against amnesty for America's estimated 11 million illegal aliens, which would reward them for violating the law and let them pull the U.S. electorate still further to the left....

CAMBRIDGE, Md. – House Republicans meeting privately at their retreat on Thursday were split on whether the leadership should forge ahead with immigration legislation this year, according to people in the room. After Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) opened the floor to members following his release of leadership’s “principles” for immigration reform, dozens of members stood up to speak, and the responses fell into four broad categories, said Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (Fla.), a leading Republican advocate for immigration reform. Some conservative lawmakers, like immigration reform foe Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa), said the party should do nothing. Others like Diaz-Balart and Rep....

As House Republicans prepare to sell out the country on immigration this week, Phyllis Schlafly has produced a stunning report on how immigration is changing the country. The report is still embargoed, but someone slipped me a copy, and it's too important to wait. Leave aside the harm cheap labor being dumped on the country does to the millions of unemployed Americans. What does it mean for the Republican Party?

Top House Republican leaders' ambitious plans to tackle immigration this year may already be in trouble before the House Speaker has even had a chance to unveil his ideas on how to fix problems that have long plagued the nation and, more recently, divided the GOP. Republicans on Wednesday kick off a three-day retreat where leaders are expected, among other initiatives, to call for legal status for millions of undocumented immigrants. Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, will unveil his legislative outline that’s also likely to include strengthening border security, adding more high tech visas, and revamping the guest worker program. But...

So what’s the point of jumping right now? Sometime this week House Republicans will unveil a short list of immigration “reform” priorities for the coming year. That release could take place at any moment. The big headline so far is that there will be a legalization of all illegal aliens, with a path to citizenship for those brought here as young children, Backing in G.O.P. for Legal Status for Immigrants. The big questions are why, and why now? The Editors of National Review have an excellent editorial, Don’t Do It: The House Republican leadership has been confronted by devilishly difficult...

The House Republican leadership’s broad framework for overhauling the nation’s immigration laws will call this week for a path to legal status — but not citizenship — for many of the 11 million adult immigrants who are in the country illegally, according to aides who have seen the party’s statement of principles. For immigrants brought to the United States illegally as young children, the Republicans would offer a path to citizenship. -snip- House Republican leaders will circulate it at a three-day retreat for their members that begins Wednesday on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. Several pro-immigration organizations that have been...

House Speaker John Boehner declined to speak about forthcoming immigration “principles” at a press conference Tuesday, even as top party officials have in past days said it would include “legal status” for millions of illegal immigrants. Boehner said the matter would first need to be discussed with the House Republican conference before the GOP's direction was decided. -snip- At a closed-door meeting just before the press conference, GOP leadership only briefly touched on the issue to tell rank-and-file members it would be discussed at the upcoming retreat in Maryland, a GOP source said.

Pro-immigration business leaders ranging from strawberry growers and bulldozer makers to Silicon Valley entrepreneurs are pressing Republicans in Congress to revive moves to reform the US immigration system. Barack Obama is expected to touch on immigration in Tuesday’s State of the Union address, but it is Republicans in the House of Representatives who will have the decisive influence on the fate of reform in the next few weeks. The most incendiary political issue is giving America’s 11m-plus undocumented immigrants legal rights to live and work in the country – a step wanted by many farmers, hoteliers and restaurants that see...

The Wall Street Journal/NBC poll asked people if a number of issues were a priority — creating jobs, promoting pre-K education, etc. From First Read: But just as House GOP leaders are considering a possible immigration push for later this year, the poll shows that only 39% think immigration should be a priority for this year. It’s one of the few issues we tested where majorities of Democrats, independents, and Republicans all agree that it should NOT be a priority. Go figure.

Immigration: Anti-amnesty Republicans prepare for an intra-party war, while wiser voices tell House Speaker John Boehner to drop immigration for 2014. Disunity going into this year's elections would be inexcusable. Thanks to the ObamaCare debacle and the IRS, Benghazi and other scandals, Republicans will almost surely drub the Democrats in this year's midterm elections. They'll hold on to the House of Representatives and maybe even win control of the Senate. So why spoil it all by fighting a bloody internecine battle on immigration? "If there's one thing that could blow up GOP chances for a good 2014," warns the Weekly...

"Do we really want to just give up the midterms like this?" If you thought the poorly-skippered GOP ship was already way, way out there -cast adrift far from what most anybody I know is calling for-  yet still expected them to at least 'play' conservative (and say stuff that actual conservatives like to hear) in the run-up to this year's 2014 midterms, you'd have been right on the first point... but wrong on the second. See, the RINO-corporatists that run the Republican Party today have dropped all pretense of giving a rat's ass what you think... they've actually come...

An effort by House lawmakers to overhaul immigration policy, which seemed all but dead for much of last year, is about to be revived and take center stage in Congress, with a new push by House Republican leaders and a fresh pitch by President Barack Obama in his State of the Union address Tuesday. House GOP leaders are expected to release broad principles to guide the chamber's immigration debate as soon as the coming week. They will include a call to grant legal status to millions of people now in the country illegally, people familiar with the plans say, a...

Recent signals from House Republican leaders that they will pursue their own vision of immigration reform have presented the White House with an opening to achieve a major legislative deal this year that has eluded lawmakers for decades. Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) is expected to release a brief outline of immigration principles to his caucus as soon as its annual retreat next week. The goals would include strengthening border security and creating new visas for foreign workers, while providing a path toward legalizing the status of the nation’s 11 million to 12 million undocumented immigrants, according to people briefed...

Former New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg said Friday that a Republican Party that ignores the nation's Hispanics and balks at immigration overhaul does so at its political peril as Republicans pressured the House GOP to act this year. "If you are against the fastest-growing voting bloc in the country, you and your party don't have a future," Bloomberg said flatly at a forum on immigration with Michigan Republican Gov. Rick Snyder and former Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez, who served in President George W. Bush's administration. National Republicans insist that the party must pass reforms and address the issue of the...

Election Day is almost nine months off. But right now Republicans seem almost certain to hold the House of Representatives and are likely to take the Senate. Which raises the inevitable question: How might the GOP seize defeat from the jaws of victory? Two occasions stand out, two obvious obstacles ahead that could lead to disastrous Republican stumbles, two pitfalls on the path to a happy GOP Election Day. Republicans are pretty good at falling into such pits. One is the increase in the debt limit, which Congress will have to deal with in the next month or two. The...

The third-ranking House Republican, Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (Calif.), said he backs granting legal status, but not a new pathway to citizenship, to millions of immigrants in the U.S. illegally. McCarthy stated his personal view on the contentious issue in an interview with KBAK/KBFX Eyewitness News in his hometown of Bakersfield, Calif. He signaled that the call for a provisional legal status would be included in the immigration reform principles House Republican leaders are soon to release.

The third-ranking House Republican, Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (Calif.), said he backs granting legal status — but not a new pathway to citizenship — to millions of immigrants in the U.S. illegally. McCarthy stated his personal view on the contentious issue in an interview with KBAK/KBFX Eyewitness News in his hometown of Bakersfield, Calif. He signaled that the call for a provisional legal status would be included in the immigration reform principles that House Republican leaders are soon to release. "The principles aren't written yet, but in my personal belief I think it'll go with legal status that will allow...